The arrival.
As of September 8th, 2007 I can say that I have two matches under my belt.
We arrived in Cleveland around 12:30pm. This show was being put on by a company called Cleveland Wrestling Alliance and it would take place in a K-Mart parking lot. Kevin told me that there were two K-Mart stores in that area and that one was nice and the other was in the hood. Sure enough we wondered into the hood to see the ring where we would be working. We met up with Preston Steele and went to our "locker room" which was actually the employee break room inside of the store. Kevin and I started unpacking our gear as Preston was putting on his face paint since he would be wrestling as WWF legend Doink the Clown. Everyone was ready to go out to ringside to greet the fans and whatnot, and if it wasn't bad enough changing in that bathroom we had to walk through the store in our wrestling gear. Poor Preston had to walk through there in full Doink gear.
I've often said that one of my worst fears in wrestling is working a show where a guy had a snake as part of his gimmick, which would cause me to be in the same area as something I am scared to death of. Sure enough, my match is moments away and this guy who was doing a mental patient gimmick pulls out a python which I would guess was between 10-15 feet in length. Why a mental patient would carry around a giant snake, I have no idea.
We weren't really informed of when our matches would be, so I was just suprised as the crowd when I heard Kevin's music play followed by the ring announcer calling "World Class..... Kevin Broadway" to the ring. Yes, they got the guy's name wrong in his first ever match. I came to the ring second and our match was underway. I took the advantage early on and got a little ovation from the crowd for a few of my moves. At one point I whipped Kevin into the ring post and I think that was the point where we got the full attention of the crowd. The guy who was the referee for this match was really working my nerves because he was just awful. Everytime one of us would try to work a submission hold on the mat, he would tell us to get up and do something. Kevin tried to beat me with a splash in the corner, but I put my knees up and then beat him with a hurricanrana from the ropes. I walked back out into the crowd and got all positive feedback from everyone I talked to. It was a proud moment for me, but I knew I had another match coming up sometime during the day. I was also bummed that a few of my friends hadn't showed up yet due to the show starting almost two hours early. My mom, Mary Alice (my aunt), Uncle Mike, Uncle Bob, my girlfriend Shasta, her son Gavin, Kevin's parents, his girlfriend Emily, and Ryan M all got to see us though. Frank and Morgan showed up about 20-30 minutes after our match followed by Justin. I hadn't seen either Morgan or Justin in a long time so it felt awesome to have them come out to support me.
The time had come for my second match. Both times we followed a match between a skinny kid who I believe called himself "Little Valbowski" and a fat guy portraying Peter Griffin from the show Family Guy. This match went over real well and Kevin ended up getting the win after pinning me and putting his feet on the ropes. All kinds of people rushed toward the ring yelling at the referee for not catching Kevin in his cheating ways. I once again exited into the crowd where I was met by Preston in full Doink gear who hugged me and told me he loved me. It was a good feeling to know I impressed the guy who has been working hard to get all of us students to this point. Much to my suprise, everyone I had talked to said that the second match was much better than our first. I'm going to try and get the videos on YouTube sometime soon for anyone who couldn't make it to the show.
So there it was, my first paying wrestling gig in front of a live crowd. I was very proud of myself and Kevin, along with The Wraith, Flex Lee, Scott Prodigy, and Adam Evil (the other students from our group) who also did a great job in their matches. A few people filmed and took pictures of our matches which is something I will love to look back on. Shasta even made me a little collage of pictures in a frame to give to me after I got home from Cleveland. You can see some of those pictures in my "Wrestling Related Pictures" album on here.
I ended the night enjoying Little Caesar's pizza and Crazy Bread.
- Ryan
We arrived in Cleveland around 12:30pm. This show was being put on by a company called Cleveland Wrestling Alliance and it would take place in a K-Mart parking lot. Kevin told me that there were two K-Mart stores in that area and that one was nice and the other was in the hood. Sure enough we wondered into the hood to see the ring where we would be working. We met up with Preston Steele and went to our "locker room" which was actually the employee break room inside of the store. Kevin and I started unpacking our gear as Preston was putting on his face paint since he would be wrestling as WWF legend Doink the Clown. Everyone was ready to go out to ringside to greet the fans and whatnot, and if it wasn't bad enough changing in that bathroom we had to walk through the store in our wrestling gear. Poor Preston had to walk through there in full Doink gear.
I've often said that one of my worst fears in wrestling is working a show where a guy had a snake as part of his gimmick, which would cause me to be in the same area as something I am scared to death of. Sure enough, my match is moments away and this guy who was doing a mental patient gimmick pulls out a python which I would guess was between 10-15 feet in length. Why a mental patient would carry around a giant snake, I have no idea.
We weren't really informed of when our matches would be, so I was just suprised as the crowd when I heard Kevin's music play followed by the ring announcer calling "World Class..... Kevin Broadway" to the ring. Yes, they got the guy's name wrong in his first ever match. I came to the ring second and our match was underway. I took the advantage early on and got a little ovation from the crowd for a few of my moves. At one point I whipped Kevin into the ring post and I think that was the point where we got the full attention of the crowd. The guy who was the referee for this match was really working my nerves because he was just awful. Everytime one of us would try to work a submission hold on the mat, he would tell us to get up and do something. Kevin tried to beat me with a splash in the corner, but I put my knees up and then beat him with a hurricanrana from the ropes. I walked back out into the crowd and got all positive feedback from everyone I talked to. It was a proud moment for me, but I knew I had another match coming up sometime during the day. I was also bummed that a few of my friends hadn't showed up yet due to the show starting almost two hours early. My mom, Mary Alice (my aunt), Uncle Mike, Uncle Bob, my girlfriend Shasta, her son Gavin, Kevin's parents, his girlfriend Emily, and Ryan M all got to see us though. Frank and Morgan showed up about 20-30 minutes after our match followed by Justin. I hadn't seen either Morgan or Justin in a long time so it felt awesome to have them come out to support me.
The time had come for my second match. Both times we followed a match between a skinny kid who I believe called himself "Little Valbowski" and a fat guy portraying Peter Griffin from the show Family Guy. This match went over real well and Kevin ended up getting the win after pinning me and putting his feet on the ropes. All kinds of people rushed toward the ring yelling at the referee for not catching Kevin in his cheating ways. I once again exited into the crowd where I was met by Preston in full Doink gear who hugged me and told me he loved me. It was a good feeling to know I impressed the guy who has been working hard to get all of us students to this point. Much to my suprise, everyone I had talked to said that the second match was much better than our first. I'm going to try and get the videos on YouTube sometime soon for anyone who couldn't make it to the show.
So there it was, my first paying wrestling gig in front of a live crowd. I was very proud of myself and Kevin, along with The Wraith, Flex Lee, Scott Prodigy, and Adam Evil (the other students from our group) who also did a great job in their matches. A few people filmed and took pictures of our matches which is something I will love to look back on. Shasta even made me a little collage of pictures in a frame to give to me after I got home from Cleveland. You can see some of those pictures in my "Wrestling Related Pictures" album on here.
I ended the night enjoying Little Caesar's pizza and Crazy Bread.
- Ryan